Ranting, Running, and Cooking

Beef Bourguigon on a Budget

I have always been fascinated with Beef Bourguignon, ever since I saw a video of Julia Child making it. It looked and sounded delicious because it seemed like a drawn out and full force pot roast, so much better. My thing with pot roast is that I find it very dry. It is never what it’s supposed to be, and sometimes just too salty. The potatoes are always compensating. I just had to do it, I just had to make the Beef Bourguignon. I have a brand new dutch oven that we got for a git from our wedding and it still hadn’t been used.

Unfortunately, I am not at the point in my life where I can afford to make food with expensive bottles of cognac, so I ditched that aspect and left the flavor up to a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Noir. I also left out the carrots, because I never end up eating them anyway.

1. Place the dutch oven on the stove with medium heat. Heat up the olive oil and place the bacon in the dutch oven to fry. Once the bacon has browned, place it on a giant plate over paper towels. Keep the dutch oven going.
2. Coat the chuck roast in salt and pepper, then cut the chuck roast into small squares. When done brown the beef squares in the same bacon grease in the dutch oven. Make sure to brown the beef in a single layer and place on top of the bacon on the plate when done.
3. Cut the onions into whatever size you want. I cut some big and some into small pieces. Once the onions are cut up, place them in the beef & bacon combination grease, cook until brown, about 15 minutes. After they’re browned, cook the garlic. I like to use my Pampered Chef ‘Garlic Press’, it is nothing short of amazing. It saves time and makes cooking with garlic so easy.
4. Add the beef back to the dutch oven and cut the bacon into pieces. Place the bacon in with all of the rest. Also add the tomato sauce. Dump the entire bottle of pinot noir. Stir and place in the oven at 250 degrees for an hour and 45 minutes.
5. Shortly before it is time to take the dutch oven out, sauté the mushrooms in 2 tblspns of butter. Put them in the mushrooms in the dutch oven while it’s on low heat on the stovetop.
6. Stir in the 4 tablespoons of whole wheat flour and 2 tablespoons of butter.
7. Stir in frozen onions and let dutch oven sit at low heat for an additional 25 minutes.
6. Cut up the country bread, butter the tops if desired, place in the oven for 3 minutes at 450 degrees.